Modi To Inaugurate Abu Dhabi’s First Hindu Temple

Riyadh:Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday lay the foundation stone for a new temple for the Hindu community living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The temple will be first to be built in Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE which is home to a huge Indian diaspora.

The PM will be laying the foundation stone for the temple from the Dubai Opera House via video conferencing. This is Modi’s second visit to the UAE after August 2015.
At present, the UAE has only one Hindu temple and that is in Dubai. During the PM’s previous trip in 2015, the UAE government had announced the allocation of 20,000 square metres of land in Abu Dhabi to build a temple.

Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) will manage the temple. The Trust had on Friday expressing gratitude to the rulers of the UAE for gifting a piece of land to build the Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi.

The temple, expected to be completed by 2020, will be built at Abu Mureikhah, off the Dubai-Abu Dhabi Highway, and will incorporate all aspects and features of a traditional Hindu temple. The temple will have idols of Lord Krishna, Lord Maheshwara, Lord Ayyappa and more. The stones would be carved by artisans in India and assembled in the UAE.